Hot Lips needs a firm but partial cut each year, roughly a third to a half of its size. It doesn’t get the ground-level chop that many garden perennials do. It is a woody sage from Mexico that keeps a living framework of stems from year to year.1Jeremy Bartlett’s LET IT GROW blog. Salvia ‘Hotlips’ So how far you cut matters less than where you cut, because the plant regrows from buds on the stems you leave behind.
Cut Back One Third to One Half, to a Pair of Leaves
In late winter or early spring, cut the plant back by about one third to one half to keep it compact and bushy.2Gardenia. Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ (Baby Sage) A gentler one-third cut is enough for a plant that is already tidy.3Gardenia. Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ (Baby Sage)
Timing within that window depends on your weather. Wait until the worst of the cold has passed, because a cut made too early can be followed by a frost that damages the fresh growth starting below it. A good signal is buds along the stems beginning to swell or showing small green leaves, which also shows you where the living growing points are.
Make each cut just above a growing point, meaning a pair of leaves with small shoots where they meet the stem.4Jack Wallington | Nature & Gardens. How to prune salvias and when to do it – three pruning groups | Jack Wallington | Nature & Gardens Those shoots are where the new stems and flowers will come from.5Jack Wallington | Nature & Gardens. How to prune salvias and when to do it – three pruning groups | Jack Wallington | Nature & Gardens To find one, run your eye down a stem from the tip until you see paired leaves, then look for tiny green shoots or bumps where the leaves meet the stem. Cut about half a centimetre above that pair, not right on it.
Hot Lips often looks fine at the tips and bare below, so the right cut point may be higher than you expect. Cutting to the lowest leafy pair is better than cutting lower into stem with no leaves. In early spring some stems may still look bare only because their buds haven’t swollen yet, so wait until you can see a few leaves or small shoots before deciding. If a stem has no leaves or shoots anywhere along it, it is probably dead or nearly so. Once you have checked that it isn’t alive, remove it at its base.
Clear out dead, diseased or damaged stems first, before you shape the plant.6Jack Wallington | Nature & Gardens. How to prune salvias and when to do it – three pruning groups Done this way, the plant keeps its size and structure and doesn’t turn into a tangled, open mess.7Jack Wallington | Nature & Gardens. How to prune salvias and when to do it – three pruning groups Use clean, sharp pruners so the cuts heal cleanly. Cut the longest stems first and trim the rest to match, stepping back often so the shape stays rounded and even. Thin any stems that cross through the middle so air can get in.
Why You Shouldn’t Cut It to the Ground
Hot Lips and its relatives often struggle to regrow from bare old stems and may not recover well from severe pruning.8Gardeners Corner – The Friendly Gardening Forum. Salvia Hot Lips9Gardeners Corner – The Friendly Gardening Forum. Salvia Hot Lips10Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. How to Prune Salvias: Seasonal Timing & Mistakes to Avoid So always leave healthy stems that still have visible buds.
Bare older stems have few active buds left, while stems that still carry leaves have buds at each leaf pair, ready to grow. That is why the same plant can bounce back from a cut above a leaf pair and sulk after a cut into bare stem. The bark on these older stems is thicker and grayer, and the stems are stiffer, which helps you tell them from this year’s growth.
If you have already cut too far, cutting below the lowest leafy shoots usually still produces new growth, but the plant grows back more slowly.11Jack Wallington | Nature & Gardens. How to prune salvias and when to do it – three pruning groups Shoots that sprout from old wood can have brittle joins that snap off easily in strong wind.12Jack Wallington | Nature & Gardens. How to prune salvias and when to do it – three pruning groups In an exposed spot, shelter or stake a hard-cut plant while the new shoots firm up.
Expect the plant to sit bare for several weeks before buds appear. Water normally and wait for spring warmth to wake the buds, then pinch the new shoots lightly once they grow so they branch.
Before you cut, or when you’re judging damage afterward, scratch the bark lightly with a fingernail. Green underneath means the stem is alive. Brittle stems that snap and look brown inside are dead and can be removed. If some stems below the cut still have green under the bark, the plant has living tissue and a good chance to regrow. If the base is soft, black or smells rotten, the problem is rot rather than pruning, and recovery is much less likely. Give it until the weather has been warm for a few weeks before you decide it is dead.
Summer Trims for More Flowers
Deadheading means removing spent flowers, and summer is often the most important time to do it.13Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. How to Deadhead Salvias for Repeat Blooms After a flush of flowers the plant starts setting seed, and removing the faded blooms steers its energy into new flower spikes instead.14Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. How to Deadhead Salvias for Repeat Blooms Many salvias bloom twice without help, but deadheading can bring three or even four flushes in a season.15The Garden Continuum. How to DeadHead Salvia
A stem is ready when most of the small flowers along the spike have dropped and tiny seed cups remain where they were. The tip looks thin and bare while the leaves below are healthy.
Cut faded stems back to at least where the first set of leaves begins on the flower stem.16Joy Us Garden. Pruning Salvias: How To Prune 3 Different Types of Salvias Follow the faded spike down to the first pair of healthy leaves and cut just above them, so no bare stub is left. On a short spike, a pinch with finger and thumb is enough; on a long one, use pruners. Fresh growth and another round of blooms often follow within a few weeks.17Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. How to Deadhead Salvias for Repeat Blooms
Check the plant every week or two while it is flowering, since spikes fade at different times. Trim a flush when most of the spikes have finished rather than one by one, which is quicker and gives a tidier look. Ease off shaping toward late summer, since autumn cuts should stay light.
Keep Autumn Pruning Light
In colder climates, avoid heavy pruning before winter.18Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. How to Prune Salvias: Seasonal Timing & Mistakes to Avoid Hard cuts can trigger tender new growth just before frost.19Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. How to Prune Salvias: Seasonal Timing & Mistakes to Avoid Stems left in place through winter also help protect the base of the plant.20Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. How to Prune Salvias: Seasonal Timing & Mistakes to Avoid So in autumn, remove only dead flower spikes and damaged growth.21Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. How to Prune Salvias: Seasonal Timing & Mistakes to Avoid
Damaged growth worth removing means broken stems, snapped by wind or weight, which you can cut back to a healthy point. Diseased or mouldy growth should be removed and binned, since it can carry problems into winter. Leave stems that are merely scruffy, because they still provide protection.
Your climate decides how risky winter is. Hot Lips is typically hardy in USDA zones 8 to 10, and some growers list it as surviving down to about 0°F to 20°F.22Gardenia. Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ (Baby Sage)23Planet Desert. How Far to Cut Back a Hot Lips Plant? In zone 7 it may survive only with very good drainage and winter protection.24Gardenia. Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ (Baby Sage) Hard freezes can kill it to the ground, though it may return from its roots.25Garden Oracle. Salvia ‘Hot Lips’
In a borderline area, grow it in well-drained soil, because wet, cold roots are a common winter killer. A sheltered spot near a warm wall helps. Potted plants can be moved somewhere protected for the winter.
Rescuing an Old, Leggy Plant
Hot Lips responds well to yearly shaping.26Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. How to Prune Salvias: Seasonal Timing & Mistakes to Avoid But hard pruning into bare wood gives slower, more brittle regrowth.27Jack Wallington | Nature & Gardens. How to prune salvias and when to do it – three pruning groups So cut the leggiest stems back to their lowest leafy shoots this spring and do more next year.
Start by judging the plant. Look at the base for leaves or small shoots on the lower stems, since these are your options for cutting back. A plant with leafy stems only at the tips and bare stems for most of their length is leggy but usually still rescuable. The more low shoots you can find, the more confident you can be in the first cut.
In year one, remove dead wood and cut about half the stems to low growing points. Choose the longest and barest stems and cut each back to its lowest leafy pair, in late winter or early spring when you can see where the buds are. Keep the other stems so the plant can still feed itself. In year two, cut the remaining old stems once new low shoots have formed. Keep up summer trims so it branches lower down.
If almost no stems have low buds, rescue may fail. A plant grown from your own cuttings can replace it cheaply, and it is wise to start the cuttings before you attempt a risky hard cut.
Turning Your Clippings Into New Plants
Salvias root very easily and don’t need rooting hormone.28Thompson & Morgan Blog. Taking cuttings of half hardy salvias So healthy, non-flowering shoot tips from a trim can become new plants.
Pick firm, healthy tips with no flowers, since a cutting with flowers puts energy into them rather than roots. If only flowering shoots are available, cut off the flower spike and use the leafy part below. Avoid shoots that are limp, spotted or damaged, since they root poorly.
Take a tip piece about 8 to 10 cm long with several leaf pairs, and cut just below a leaf pair, since roots form most readily from the nodes. Use clean, sharp pruners or a knife so the cut is neat. Take several cuttings, since not every one will root.
Remove the lower leaves and any flowers. Push the cutting into gritty compost, or a mix of compost and sand, and keep it moist but not wet. Keep it in bright light out of harsh sun. Roots usually form within a few weeks, and gentle resistance when you tug shows they have formed.
Rooted cuttings kept indoors over winter are insurance against losing the parent plant. This matters most in zone 7 or colder gardens. Plant them out once frost danger passes.